Evaluating the Seahawks’ best and worst picks from 5 recent drafts

For many of the early years of the John Schneider era, the Seattle Seahawks had a knack for putting together some of the best draft classes in the NFL.

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The Seahawks excelled particularly in the late rounds, where they drafted stars like safety Kam Chancellor, outside linebacker K.J. Wright and cornerback Richard Sherman in the fourth round or later over the course two years. They also found a franchise quarterback, Russell Wilson, in the third round. And just about every first- or second-round draft pick turned into an impact player, or at the very least a multi-year starter, during the greatest era in team history.

But recent drafts have some fans feeling the team has perhaps lost its touch. They’ve coincided with the team going from a perennial Super Bowl contender to a fringe-playoff-caliber squad.

So now seems to be a good time to look back at five recent draft classes and assess who are the best and worst picks made each draft. We’ll look at the 2019-23 classes and exclude 2024 due to it being too early to fairly evaluate those picks.

A note on the criteria: We’ll be factoring in overall player performance, the value of the draft pick, the team needs at the time of the selection and if the team missed a better player at a position of need who was selected soon after.

2023

Picks: First round – CB Devon Witherspoon (No. 5), WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (No. 20); second round – LB Derick Hall (No. 37), RB Zach Charbonnet (No. 52); fourth round – G Anthony Bradford (No. 108), DT Cameron Young, (No. 123); fifth round –DE Mike Morris (No. 151), C Olu Oluwatimi (No. 154); sixth round – S Jerrick Reed II (No. 198); seventh round – RB Kenny McIntosh (No. 237).

Best pick: Devon Witherspoon. It’s still pretty early and Smith-Njigba is starting to give him a bit of a push, but Witherspoon has been a game-changer since the moment he stepped on the field for the Seahawks. After hitting on Riq Woolen in the fifth round of the prior draft, cornerback wasn’t the biggest position of need. Some will argue the Seahawks should have taken defensive tackle Jalen Carter at No. 5 overall instead, but there’s no doubt the Seahawks are just fine with who they did pick.

FOX’s Mark Sanchez on ‘unreal’ traits of Devon Witherspoon

Devon Witherspoon: elite. pic.twitter.com/jWWXu9sIBY

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) November 25, 2024

Worst pick: Zach Charbonnet. The second-year running back has made more of an impact than a few of his draft class peers. His contributions as a pass blocker and receiver out of the backfield have been helpful, but he hasn’t been all that effective in the short-yardage role the team has tried to use him in. Some of that should be placed on the struggles of the offensive line. However, a backup running back just isn’t the value teams are looking for in the second round, and that’s what the Seahawks have gotten so far with Charbonnet. The pick was a pretty puzzling one even at the time since Kenneth Walker III had just rushed for over 1,000 yards as a rookie in 2022.

2022

Picks: First round – OT Charles Cross (No. 9); second round – LB Boye Mafe (No. 40), RB Kenneth Walker III (No. 41); third round – OT Abraham Lucas (No. 72); fourth round – DB Coby Bryant (No. 109); fifth round – CB Riq Woolen (No. 153), DE Tyreke Smith (No. 158); seventh round – WR Bo Melton (No. 229), WR Dareke Young (No. 233).

Best pick: Charles Cross. There are a lot of good choices here. Cross wins out for now due to the team’s struggles on the offensive line. He’s made some big strides in his third season and is starting to make a case to be considered one of the league’s top left tackles. It’s hard to imagine what this O-line would look like without Cross in the fold. If it weren’t for injuries, Abraham Lucas would be the pick here because of his value as a third-rounder. There’s also strong cases to be made for what 2022 Pro Bowler Riq Woolen has brought as a fifth-rounder and Boye Mafe filling a need at pass rusher. This will be a fun class to revisit further down the line.

Worst pick: Tyreke Smith gets this unwanted nod here as the highest-drafted player who hasn’t panned out yet, which says quite a bit about how well the Seahawks did in this draft. The fifth-round pick missed all of 2022 with an injury and appeared in one game with the Seahawks in 2023 before the Cardinals signed him off of their practice squad. Smith re-signed with Seattle’s practice squad after being cut by Arizona in August.

2021

Picks: Second round – WR Dee Eskridge (No. 56); fourth round – CB Tre Brown (No. 137); sixth round – OT Stone Forsythe (No. 208).

Best pick: Tre Brown. There aren’t any great choices, but Brown has brought solid value as a fourth-rounder who developed into a starter. However, that starting role didn’t last very long. After taking the role as Seattle’s No. 3 corner during a strong showing last season, he was benched in favor of Josh Jobe and hasn’t played a defensive snap in the team’s past five games.

Worst pick: Dee Eskridge. With the Seahawks having traded away most of their picks by this draft, they really needed to hit on their second-rounder. They did not. Eskridge was never on the field much as he struggled to stay healthy, and he also missed six games due to suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. He is now a member of the Miami Dolphins after being cut by the Seahawks in August. If there’s any silver lining here, it’s that missing on Eskridge meant they needed a young receiver when they picked Smith-Njigba in the first round two years later. But it’s hard to ignore two-time Pro Bowl center Creed Humphrey going to Kansas City seven picks after Seattle took Eskridge, the second year in a row in which the Seahawks missed out on a potential long-term answer at the position.

2020

Picks: First round – LB Jordyn Brooks (No. 27); second round – DE Darrell Taylor (No. 48); third round – G Damien Lewis (No. 48); fourth round – TE Colby Parkinson (No. 133), RB DeeJay Dallas (No. 144); fifth round – DE Alton Robinson (No. 148); sixth round – WR Freddie Swain (No. 214); seventh round – TE Stephen Sullivan (No. 251).

Best pick: Jordyn Brooks. Nobody really stands out as a great pick here, but Brooks made the biggest impact on the team and helped smooth the transition when Seattle moved on from longtime linebacker K.J. Wright. Now with Miami, Brooks was a tackling machine during his four years in Seattle and played a key pivotal on the defense, although he also was part of a unit that was one of the worst in the league against the run in his final two seasons. That normally doesn’t say much good about the linebacker play. If Taylor was able to play during his rookie season, he might have the nod here. He has actually ended up being one of the more productive pass rushers out of what has turned out to be a pretty weak class for the position.

JORDYN BROOKS PICK-6! @Seahawks back in it.

📺: #SFvsSEA on NBC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/N5H8Nc0xKc pic.twitter.com/tkhBW0j9Wd

— NFL (@NFL) November 24, 2023

Worst pick: DeeJay Dallas. What Dallas became for the Seahawks is just fine for a fourth-rounder. He contributed on special teams as a returner and on coverage units, and provided depth and a third-down option at running back. But Seattle missed out on a chance to take a standout center when they selected Dallas. Two picks later, the Cowboys took Tyler Biadasz, a 2022 Pro Bowler now in his fourth season as a full-time starter. Given Seattle’s struggles to find a reliable starting center since trading Max Unger, Biadsz would have made a big impact for the team.

2019

Picks: First round – DE L.J. Collier (No. 29); second round – S Marquise Blair (No. 47), WR DK Metcalf (No. 64); third round – LB Cody Barton (No. 88); fourth round – WR Gary Jennings Jr. (No. 120), G Phil Haynes (No. 124), CB Ugo Amadi (No. 132); fifth round – LB Ben Burr Kirven (No. 142); sixth round – RB Travis Homer (No. 204), DT Demarcus Christmas (No. 209); seventh round – WR John Ursua (No. 236).

Best pick: DK Metcalf. The Seahawks got value out of a few picks in the this draft, but nobody else comes close to Metcalf. They traded back up into the second round to get the Ole Miss product, which proved to be a good move and makes this class look quite a bit better. Despite being a polarizing figure at times, Metcalf has given the team a bona fide No. 1 receiver with a unique blend of size and athleticism, and he’s on his way to being considered one of the best wideouts in franchise history (if he isn’t already there). ESPN’s Adam Schefter recently reported that Seattle had another deal in place with the Raiders to move up in the second round and also take San Francisco star Deebo Samuel at No. 35, but the Raiders reneged on the deal and instead traded the pick to Jacksonville. If that deal would have happened, that would have been quite the second round for the Seahawks and quite the debate on who was the better pick.

WIDE OPEN @dkm14 🤯 pic.twitter.com/rHIeaVSkOL

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) September 15, 2024

Worst pick: L.J. Collier. The late 2010s were a time when the Seahawks just couldn’t hit on defensive linemen. Collier was the highest-drafted of them all. The former first-round pick had just three sacks and played sparingly for much of his four years in Seattle. Collier is now a regular on the Cardinals’ defense after missing much of the past two seasons due to injuries, which includes the first half of his final year with the Seahawks in 2022. With a sack against Seattle last Sunday, he nearly matched his previous career total (two) in games played at Lumen Field.

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